State home sales sink deeper

Friday

Dec 28, 2007 at 2:00 AM

The Massachusetts real estate market continued to slump last month, as single-family home sales dropped 12.6 percent as compared with November 2006.

SARAH SHEMKUS

The Massachusetts real estate market continued to slump last month, as single-family home sales dropped 12.6 percent as compared with November 2006, according to numbers released today by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

"They're a lot less than what we'd like to see," said Doug Azarian, the president of the association and the owner of Century 21 Dream Homes in Falmouth.

Last month, 2,986 single-family homes were sold in the state; last November, there were 3,416 such sales.

The sluggish pace of sales makes last month the slowest November since 1994, when 2,847 single-family homes were sold.

Condominium sales fell 14.2 percent over the same period, from 1,451 in November 2006 to 1,245 last month.

The Realtors' numbers include only properties sold through the Multiple Listing Service.

The median value of a single-family home was $330,000 in November, down 2.9 percent from the same month last year.

The median condo price in the state increased, however, from $270,000 in November 2006 to $275,000 last month.

A median is a midpoint price, meaning that half of the homes sold for prices higher than the median, and half lower.

While the dynamics of the market may cause problems for sellers, Azarian said that these trends are advantageous for buyers.

"You've got a number of factors that make it a great time to buy," he said, citing dropping prices, continued low interest rates and a bigger inventory of homes from which to choose.

A recent survey by Azarian revealed 78 properties for sale with asking prices below $300,000 in Falmouth alone, he said. Last year at this time only 19 homes in the town fell into that range.